My over 25-year old Sanyo JA 220 stereo amplifier has been in trouble for a while, and I was looking for a new one – amplifier or receiver – small but with many inputs and reasonably looking. Furthermore I would like one that could be turned off, so it wouldn’t be using any power when not playing and for fire safety reasons.

After some store visits I bought the cheapest (I think) NAD Electronics amplifier, a NAD C 315BEE, from the Danish audiophile store Hi-Fi klubben. It looked ok, had many inputs and quite enough Watts, though the front panel power button was only a standby button… However, a Hi-Fi klubben staff assured me that due to new regulation new electronics devices would only be using less than one Watt in standby mode. So I guess that would be ok…

After some days I noticed that the amplifier was hot after having been in standby for many hours! What on earth was wrong? Did I get a faulty one? I googled and it turned out that others on the internet have had the same experience. One person emailed NAD, and their response was that standby power usage is 20W! This is ridiculous. Looking on the online NAD data sheet I see no mentioning of the standby power consumption. apparently they are too embarrassed to mention it. The same goes for the description of the amplifier on the Hi-Fi klubben homepage. No mentioning. What Hi-Fi magazine also manage to to describe the amplifier without mentioning the standby power consumption. Someone should email these guys and tell them we are living the 21st century.

Dan J??rgensen, Danish member of the European Union parlament, claims that the average cost of standby power consumption in 2006 Denmark was 2000 Danske Kroner per year per household. That is quite a lot. In 2006 my total household power consumption was around 5000 Dansk Kroner (excluding the power consumption of “ejerforeningen” – the appartment owners organization). Thus there is a good reason for combined efforts on lowering the standby power consumption.

I wonder if the NAD amplifier is legal? It has a power button, – but inconveniently on the back panel. The language of the Commission Regulation is convoluted. In my opinion the NAD standby button is out of line. Should we see a European-wide withdrawal?

Regardless of regulation, 20 Watts on the NAD amplifier is simply too much. The reputation of the NAD engineers has in my view hit the ground, incompetence galore in a bunch of audionerds. The NAD has been on sale in the Hi-Fi klubben for a while. Perhaps they want to get rid of this vampire power monster.